The Harvest is Coming
by Pripovjedac
Summary: Instead of joining the Rebellion after the fall of the Jedi, Ahsoka Tano gathered a few thousand desperate individuals and managed to flee the galaxy. After eventually making it to the Milky Way galaxy, she sets out to preserve the Jedi and make a new home. But terrible dangers await the Milky Way. The Harvest is coming.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

 _Eden Prime, 2183 CE_

When humans had first gone through the Charon Relay all those years ago, they were venturing into the unknown, not knowing if they would ever return. Many believed it would be a harsh existence filled with pain and struggle as they tried to scratch a living on some rock out in the black. Others were even more pessimistic. They expected the relay to send them to the middle of nowhere, dooming the passengers of that first expedition to slow starvation and death. Still others thought they might find the ones who had left the ruins on Mars, the Protheans, and either looked forward to making contact or dreaded it. Few expected what they did find: a small number of garden worlds, inhabitable in mostly small areas near the equator, and one planet nearly identical to Earth, that is, Earth as it had been some 1,000 years ago. The first colonists of this planet were private citizens, often described as "hippies" by the corporations who had sponsored colonization of Terra Nova and Demeter, and these first colonists quickly established policies attempting to prevent the manner of resource use that had nearly doomed Earth before the proliferation of clean energy in the mid-2000s. This earned the star system the name Utopia and the planet Eden Prime. While intended as a derogatory term mocking the failed utopian communes of the early 20th century United States, the colonists embraced the name. When the colony outstripped the corporate colonies of Terra Nova and Demeter in population growth and production, so did the rest of humanity.

That was thirty years ago. Now, the colony consisted primarily of one major city of 3 million and several nearby settlements. Surrounding the city, which was named Vida after the first colonial leader, were massive farms that supplied vast amounts of produce primarily to the Systems Alliance and Asari Republics. Among the farms were several VI control stations that housed equipment and the virtual intelligences that ran the farms. Most of the people in Vida did not actually work on the farms, but programmed, developed, and maintained the VIs that ran them. The city skyline consisted of towering stacks of prefabricated housing and office units. A tram system connected the control stations to both the city and the spaceport, which was located on the western outskirts of Vida. The surrounding terrain was mostly plains to the south and west, hills with orchards and vineyards to the north, and rocky hills perfect for growing olive trees to the east. Further east laid a mountain range rising out of a jungle, and it is there, on a cliff outcropping, that a certain figure sat in a meditative pose.

She wasn't human; that much was clear. However, she looked closer to human than some of the species in the Milky Way. Like a human, she walked upright on two legs and had two arms ending in hands with five digits. She also had two eyes, though they were somewhat larger than a human's, a nose, and a mouth full of sharp teeth. The two most striking differences between her and a human, however, were her orange skin and the organ on her head. She had two horns that stretched vertically about the length of her head above her head slightly curving towards the center then flaring outwards at the very top. These hollow appendages acted as ears. The horns, or montrals, formed one part of the organ which covered her whole head in a tough yet flexible hide and stretched down below her head in three loosely hanging tentacles, or lekku, that reached halfway down her torso. The whole organ was colored in blue and white diagonal stripes. In addition, she had several white tattoos on her forehead, cheeks, and eyebrows that framed her orange-skinned face and served to make her bright blue eyes stand out. She wore a sleeveless top made of a breathable mesh and athletic shorts. Attached to her shorts were two metal cylinders, her constant companions.

She sat on her haunches, eyes closed, listening and feeling Eden Prime awake from its long night*. A young human male climbed up beside her. He wore a tan tunic with a similar metal cylinder attached to the belt at his waist.

"Mind if I join you, Ahsoka?" He asked as he knelt beside her.

"Please do, Ga'alen," Ahsoka replied.

They both meditated in silence as the sun began to peek over the horizon. Several minutes or several hours later, neither of them kept track of the time, the young man Ga'alen said in a quiet, somber voice, "The anniversary's approaching. It'll be 16 years in a week."

Ahsoka's head dropped. "I know," she whispered. After a few minutes she asked, "Do you ever wonder what would have happened if we'd stayed?" Ga'alen looked at her, questioning, as she opened her eyes and looked forward. "Could we have made a difference?"

Ga'alen sighed and put a hand on her shoulder. "We made a difference. Ahsoka, please, look at me. Why do you think all of us, both the refugees and Jedi, look up to you? Because you found a way to make the right call when there was no right call to be made. You saved us and ensured that Palpatine failed to wipe out the Jedi."

"I don't know, it's just…" Ahsoka trailed off. "I wish I could have stayed and fought. And, yes, I know, we would have died fighting the Empire. It just feels wrong that others are fighting and dying while I ran. Not always, but near the anniversary of Order 66, it makes me feel," she paused, afraid of the word, "cowardly."

Ga'alen opened his mouth, then closed it. Then opened it again, "Ahsoka-." _BWAAHHM!_ He was cut off as a massive presence made itself known in an unholy noise. Worse for the two Force-sensitives, their minds were assaulted by a terrible sense of pain and anguish. Both had lived through the Clone Wars, Order 66, and some of the Empire's atrocities, all of which had rippled grief and pain through the galaxy and yet neither had sensed anything like this before. The pain quickly caused Ga'alen to black out. As Ahsoka followed him into unconsciousness, she glimpsed a massive ship descending into Eden Prime's atmosphere.

* * *

"Master Tano! Master Tano!" Ahsoka slowly regained consciousness to the sound of someone shouting her name over her comlink. Feeling the presence and pain still there, she quickly put up her mental shields. This blunted the pain enough for her to function.

"This is Tano," she responded. "Knight Tek is down. This Force disturbance knocked both of us out. Is everyone alright up there?"

"Master Tano, this is Tiberius. Everyone who was meditating when the disturbance hit is down. What's happening?"

"Not sure yet, but given the giant ship that just touched down in the city, I'd guess some sort of invasion," Ahsoka said as she helped Ga'alen to his feet. "Have everyone suit up and get to a shuttle. We'll do what we can to protect the civilians. Can you raise the planetary garrison?"

"Negative, ma'am. We lost contact shortly after the disturbance hit."

A short time later Ahsoka and Ga'alen arrived at their home. Although the Jedi often referred to it as a Temple, it was little more than a couple prefab units with enough space for everyone to sleep. Waiting for them was Jedi Master Mohlabani Sebete, a large and imposing yet calm human who had come with them. "Ahsoka, we're in contact with some of the garrison on the east side of Vida. They're under attack by some sort of robots." He said as Ahsoka quickly donned a set of light armor and grabbed a pistol. She walked out to where their two shuttles were parked and the rest of the Jedi were assembled.

Ahsoka addressed them, easily slipping back into Commander Tano mode. "Okay, that ship touched down at the spaceport. These robots must have come from there, so we'll break into two groups. Knight Tek, take the padawans and set up a perimeter five kilometers away from the spaceport. Evacuate any civilians that you can and keep the enemy contained." Ga'alen nodded. "Master Sebete, Master Rizhou, and I will push towards the spaceport and try to draw their attention. Questions? Then let's move, and may the Force be with us."

* * *

"Ahsoka, for the record, this is a terrible idea," said Jedi Master Amalek Rizhou as their shuttle sped towards the city center. Amalek was a Dathomiran. She had pale skin, a long angular face, and a bald head, but aside from that, she looked very human. "It's completely reckless and probably going to get us killed. We have no idea what we're facing and I can still feel that presence and pain pounding away in my head." She shook her head and sighed. "It's not hard to believe you were Skywalker's student."

Ahsoka turned away and winced. _Goodbye, Snips_. A second later, though, she turned back smirking. "And yet here you are," Ahsoka said.

"And yet here I am," Amalek said with a smile.

"We're approaching the first drop point now," said Mohlabani. "If you lovebirds are done, it's time to get a move on, Amalek."

The plan was for the three of them to approach the spaceport along three separate paths, thereby drawing more attention separately than they would together. After dropping off Amalek on the north side of the city, Mohlabani dropped off Ahsoka near the center and then dropped himself off near the south.

Ahsoka didn't have to go far before she found a group of robots rounding a bend in a row of prefabs. There were three, two fully black and one white, carrying what looked like assault rifles. About the height of an average human, they appeared to have a similar design to the battle droids she faced in the Clone Wars if those droids had the armor and bulk of the super battle droids. Ahsoka noticed all this in the span of about a second as the droids, which had to that point been patrolling as one unit, turned towards her, emitted an electronic growl, and began to fire.

Unfortunately for Ahsoka, she was caught out in the open with no cover. Unfortunately for the droids, Ahsoka Tano was a Jedi. Before the droids had even started to fire, Ahsoka had gathered the Force to her and jumped while simultaneously drawing one of her lightsabers and her pistol. As she flew towards the droids she fired as quickly as she could, attempting to bring down their shields. Gravity had just begun to seize control of her again when the Force screamed out a warning. The white droid fired a small rocket at her. Ahsoka was able to quickly twist her body out of the way as she fell, landing next to one of the black droids. She bisected it with her lightsaber then gasped in pain as a round from one of the other droids pierced her shield and hit her in the arm. She ducked behind a crate the droid she just bisected had been near and used the Force to start the healing process and ignore the pain.

Ahsoka's vision started to clear as the pain receded, just in time to see the white droid round the corner of the crate, its gun aimed at her. The problem with fighting droids as a Jedi was that they had no Force presence, forcing the Jedi to use their other senses and skills along with general warnings from the Force and their battle precognition. This, of course, did not mean that the Jedi were incompetent when fighting mechanical enemies, only that while a single Jedi Master could generally hope to take on five thousand organic enemies – unless those enemies were established as friends of the Jedi first or were unnaturally fast – they were only worth about one thousand battle droids. This otherworldly effectiveness, along with the long term monetary savings, was why the Jedi had been the Republic's primary peacekeeping force for the vast majority of its twenty five thousand year history despite never having more than ten thousand members at any given time. Very few wanted to tangle with an enemy that could cripple an act of aggression before it even began. This was also why the Trade Federation's droid army had been in high demand long before the beginning of the Clone Wars.

Therefore, even though Ahsoka didn't sense the white droid rounding the corner, she reacted quick enough to blast the rocket it sent at her up into the air harmlessly and dismember it with her lightsaber faster than its visual processors could process. She turned to see the final droid had abandoned its previous tactics and just charged her. She used the Force to send it into the wall of a prefab, denting it and crushing the droid in the process.

"Damn, I've gotten rusty," she muttered, flexing her injured arm. "Ga'alen, what's our status?" she commed.

"Perimeter's set up, but we're stretched pretty thin. We could really use one of you three back here if you can spare it," he replied.

"Sorry Ga'alen, we have what we have. We'll try and give them something to f-"

Ahsoka was cut off by the voice of one of the older Padawans, Tohar Fiu, saying in a strained voice, "Master Tano! The geth have broken through the perimeter near some sort of dig site in the south. The garrison unit I had linked up with is all but dead. I could really use some help here!"

"Damn it! Mo, break off and head to the dig site. Amalek and I will keep pushing to the spaceport." Ahsoka muttered to herself, "What I wouldn't give to have Hana or Katarina here now." Unfortunately, Master Hana Geller was acting in an ambassadorial role at the Citadel while Master Katarina Haart as well as all of the Knights except Ga'alen Tek were on assignments working with the Human Systems Alliance. Ahsoka thanked the Force that so many Masters were on Eden Prime on this day. Still, she only had 24 Jedi available, and most of them untested Padawans at best.

"So, these are the Geth?" she asked. "What are they doing out here?" she mused.

"Given the number of units they sent to that dig site, I wouldn't be surprised if they're here for whatever was dug up," Tohar responded.

* * *

Commander Alan Shepard led his surviving squad member, Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko, through the southwestern outskirts of Vida. Joker had managed to get them about a kilometer away from the dig site without being spotted by the attackers. Unfortunately, things quickly went to hell. Shepard's other squad mate, Corporal Richard Jenkins, was killed by a small drone only a few kilometers from the hospital he was born in. Shortly afterwards, Shepard and Alenko began running into robots that Alenko was able to identify as geth.

The two soldiers moved through the farmland and scattered prefabs before coming upon an unexpected sight. Four dead geth lay scattered near an empty prefab unit. Two had been shot with a gun, one appeared to have been crushed and thrown against the prefab wall, and the fourth was bisected with cooled molten metal along the cut. "Lieutenant," Shepard motioned to the crushed robot, "any idea what could have caused this?"

"Biotics, maybe, if the user was powerful and experienced enough. No human biotic, though, it would likely be an asari commando or, if the rumors are true, one of the turian cabals. But I think we'd have been informed if either of those were here."

"Roger that. We're nearing the dig site. Nihlus, have you seen any geth crushed by advanced biotics or cut by something hot?"

"Yes, Commander. Keep your eyes open, we may have a third party."

"Roger that." Shepard and Alenko turned as they heard gunfire to see a soldier in pink armor fleeing two drones with two geth behind them. In an amazing display of agility, she jumped behind cover, turning around midair and shooting the drones while taking cover from the walking geth. Shepard and Alenko drew their weapons to give her support. However, before they could get a shot off, a blade of green light spun through the air and cut both geth in two before turning on its own and flying into the hands of a tall, dark-skinned human.

All three Alliance personnel turned their guns towards the newcomer. The lightsword retracted into a metal hilt, which he hung on his belt before calmly turning to the soldiers, who had turned their guns towards him, and placing his hands up by his shoulders. "Sirs, ma'am."

Shepard's mind was struggling to process what he'd just seen happen. This human appeared to have used biotics with such fine control that he was able to direct the flight of an object before catching the only non-deadly part in his hand. No human had that kind of control of their biotics. "Who are you? How did you do that?" Shepard asked, keeping his gun raised.

"My name is Mohlabani Sebete," the newcomer responded in a deep, soothing voice. "And I'm afraid I can't answer that; it's classified."

"Sebete, Sebete," muttered the woman in pink. "Aren't you one of the leaders of the martial arts school on the outskirts? What was it, the Jee'dai?" At his nod, she holstered her pistol, turned to the Commander, and stood at attention. "Sir, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, 212th Planetary Garrison. This man's clear, sir."

Shepard's distrust still lingered, but he had a job to do and not much time to do it. He holstered his weapon and turned to Chief Williams. "I'm Commander Shepard and this is Lieutenant Alenko. We're on a mission to retrieve a Prothean beacon. Do you know where it is?"

"Yes, sir. It's about half a click northwest. It has to be swarming with geth now, though. My unit was patrolling near there when they ambushed us." Her voice cracked as she said, "I think they're all dead."

"Want some payback?"

"Hell yeah! Sir," she added a second later.

"You're with us, then. Sebete?" He turned to the martial arts master.

He shook his head, "My students and I are evacuating the civilians. I should get back to it."

The commander nodded. "Alright then, let's move out!"

As Shepard and his squad left, Mohlabani contacted Ahsoka and Amalek. "I ran into some Alliance marines headed for the dig site. A Prothean beacon was found there, and it looks like the geth are after it. I'm continuing towards the spaceport. Be careful, there's a lot of geth near there." At their responses, he turned to head out but not before glancing down the path Commander Shepard had taken. The Force had swirled around him like no one he'd ever met before. _I hope we meet again, Commander_ , he thought before moving off to kill more geth.

* * *

Alan knew he was missing something about Mohlabani Sebete. He was entirely too calm when three Alliance soldiers were pointing guns at him, as though it wasn't the first time he'd had a gun in his face. He also wore military grade light armor and carried a pistol that few private citizens could afford, let alone handle. Not to mention the lightsword and somehow calling it back to himself without visibly using his biotics. _Focus_ , he chided himself, _mission first, questions later._

Shepard led the makeshift squad around a corner and came upon an appalling sight. Two geth held down a struggling colonist over some sort of portable structure. Before any of the soldiers could get a shot off, a spike shot up from the structure, impaling the colonist through the chest. The field around them was filled with colonists who had already been impaled.

Shepard was filled with fury at the sight. All three quickly fired, bringing the two unsuspecting geth down in seconds.

"We are going to finish this mission," growled Shepard. Williams opened her mouth to protest, then shut it with a steely glint in her eye as Shepard finished, "-and then we are going to destroy every last _fucking_ geth on this planet."

Both marines nodded and began to continue on. Just as they began to move past the first set of spikes, however, all of the spikes began to retract, bringing the colonists down. All three marines looked at each other, confusion in their eyes. Then, to their horror, the dead colonists stood up and looked at them. Their faces still held a semblance of the men, women, and children they had once been, but their eyes glowed with an electric blue light as did their mouths when they opened them to moan; most of their skin had desiccated or been replaced with electronics, and their fingers had lengthened and sharpened to wicked looking claws. They looked at the three marines, gave a moaned scream, and began to sprint at them.

For a long moment, all three soldiers could do nothing but stare at the charging horde. Finally, "Fire," said Shepard. When nobody moved for a second, he repeated louder "Fire!" and began to do so as fast as his assault rifle could manage. He was dimly aware of Kaiden and Ashley firing, Ashley screaming as she did so. Alan kept firing with his assault rifle until it began to overheat, then dropped it and pulled out his pistol and fired until it overheated. One got close and unleashed some sort of electric attack that shorted out his barriers. Alan pulled out his shotgun and blew its head off. He bashed another that had come up on his left with the butt of the gun, dropped below a swipe from one behind him and turned and put a shotgun blast through its chest. A small one that had to have been just a child tried to jump at him; he grabbed it in midair, threw it on the ground, and stomped through its skull. And still they kept coming.

Finally, there were no more. Shepard stood in the center of a pile of bodies, his guns on the ground, his armor scratched and torn. As he came back to his senses, he registered Ashley and Kaiden staring at him in awe. They had each struggled to put down less than half the husks Alan had taken down, and he had made it look easy.

"Move out," Shepard ordered. The three marines continued towards the loading docks.

* * *

Ahsoka blasted another geth out of the way with the Force then shot another with her pistol as she cartwheeled behind cover. Their numbers had been steadily increasing the closer she got to the spaceport. Now, instead of facing squads of three or four geth, she had to deal with squads of ten to fifteen. Even worse, the white geth with rockets weren't even close to the worst ones she had to face. She had increasingly faced geth with thicker armor, larger caliber bullets, and more powerful rockets. Worst of all, their tactics had changed. Whereas before, they had displayed limited tactics, such as flanking and taking cover, as their numbers increased they had begun to show more complex strategies. She was now half a klick away from the spaceport but facing her toughest challenge yet. A group of snipers was pinning her down behind a prefab unit while wave after wave of the simple black plated foot soldiers kept coming, trying to wear her down. She was unable to cross the street thanks to the snipers and the massive geth unit occupying half the street. The one time she had poked her head out from behind cover, it had almost been taken off by a blast from that monster's cannon. In fact, the blast had blown apart a concrete barrier Ahsoka had used as cover just a moment before. She also had to contend with normal and flash-formed drones that could easily bring her shields down if she wasn't careful.

 _Well,_ she thought, _I've certainly got their attention. Now what?_ As she considered how to proceed, all of a sudden, the Force screamed a warning at her. Immediately, she jumped up and backwards, narrowly avoiding a rocket that had been fired from a yellow and black geth unit that had managed to sneak up behind her, cloaked. Immediately, another unit decloaked and fired. Ahsoka managed to turn her fall into a roll, moving close to the first geth unit which had also begun firing at her. Her lightsaber flashed out, cleaving off its gun arm before shearing it in half. She then grabbed the pieces with the Force and threw them into the second geth, throwing its aim off just as it fired a rocket. Ahsoka grabbed the rocket with the Force and sent it careening into yet another wave of foot soldiers that had just rounded the corner before slicing the cloaking-enabled geth in three pieces.

 _Alright, no more restraint_. Staying behind cover, Ahsoka put away her pistol and pulled out her second lightsaber. The pistol would do no good against the monster anyways. She felt for the sniper units that had been pinning her down. Although droids did not have a Force presence, they did register in the Force in the same way as the dead metal of a rock, ship, or computer system. Ahsoka stretched her senses towards the general location of the snipers and, upon finding them, crushed their bodies using the Force. She then gathered Force energy in her hands, stepped out from behind cover, and unleased a wave down the street that picked up the next upcoming wave of geth and smashed their internal circuits into bits, blasted aside the cannon blast the monstrous white geth had fired, and staggered the monster. She then darted forward faster than its optical processors could detect until she was in lightsaber range. It tried to crush her under a massive metal arm, but Ahsoka's lightsaber was quicker, cutting off the arm and smoothly moving her second strike to cut off its antenna before picking it up with the Force and sending it barreling down the street, crushing several other foot soldiers in its path.

Ahsoka stood in the middle of the street, catching her breath. As she did so, she looked up towards the spaceport and the massive ship whose arrival had heralded the Geth invasion. It was truly massive – twice the size of an Imperial Star Destroyer, it dominated the sky with its imposing presence. Never before in all her life had Ahsoka seen anything like it. It was enough to intimidate even her.

Her commlink chimed. "Masters," came Ga'alen's voice, "we've just picked up a radiation spike on the west side of the city near the spaceport. Its signature is consistent with a potential nuclear bomb. Unfortunately, I can't get a clear enough signal to give you an exact location."

Amalek spoke up, "The geth have begun pulling back from my area. They must be planning to destroy the city after they leave. But why?"

"They got what they came for," said Mohlabani. "The geth took the Prothean beacon back to their ship."

"Then our objective is clear," said Ahsoka. "Ga'alen, send the radiation signature to Amalek, Mo, and me then get yourself and the civilians as far away from the city as possible. We'll push towards the spaceport, find, and disable that nuke. Masters, no restraint. Do whatever you have to." Amalek and Mohlabani gave their acknowledgement. Ahsoka took a moment to center herself then took off west at a brisk jog, her face set with determination.

* * *

Meanwhile, the three Alliance marines were riding the tram towards the spaceport. They had fought their way to the dig site, only to find that the geth had already taken the Prothean beacon. It only got worse from there. After destroying more geth and husks on their way to the spaceport, they arrived at the tram station where they found Spectre Nihlus's body. He'd been shot from behind at close range by a high caliber round. According to a dock worker who had somehow managed to survive and see it, Nihlus had met another turian he seemed to know, one he called "Saren." They had discussed the invasion for a moment when Nihlus apparently turned his back to Saren, who promptly shot and killed him. Saren had then directed several geth to load the beacon onto the tram that led to the spaceport. Shepard and his marines had taken over the tram which the geth had for some reason neglected to destroy, killing several geth in the process. Then, to make matters worse, Captain Anderson radioed in, saying that they had detected a nuclear bomb at the spaceport. It appeared that now that the geth had the beacon, they were pulling out of the city and planning to blow it up.

As they approached the spaceport, they could see several geth moving towards the eastern end that faced Vida's center. "Stay down until we dock with the spaceport, then get off the tram immediately," ordered Shepard in a low voice. "If the geth realize we're here before then, they'll do what they should have done in the first place and blow the tram." Alenko and Williams nodded their acknowledgement as they crouched behind cover. When the tram docked, all three rushed off and began firing into the geth, most of whom had their backs to them and were instead facing what appeared to be an orange woman with two blue and white striped horns wearing light armor and wielding a pistol and a white laser sword similar to Sebete's. While Alan fired, he took a moment to appreciate how skilled of a warrior this Jee'dai was. She moved with unnatural speed and grace, never staying still long enough for any geth to get a shot on her.

Caught as they were between an N7 Spectre candidate backed up by two skilled Alliance marines and a Jedi, the remaining geth went down quickly. "Alenko, Williams! Find that bomb!" Shepard ordered. He approached the Jee'dai. "That was pretty impressive fighting," he said. She smiled and nodded her thanks, catching her breath. "Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy," he introduced himself. "You must be one of the Jee'dai."

She nodded. "Ahsoka Tano," she introduced herself.

"We've received intel that a nuke is somewhere in this spaceport. We could use your help searching for it. Here, take this radiation detection package." He said, opening up his omni-tool. "It will beep more frequently the closer you are…" he trailed off as Tano held up her own omni-tool with the same radiation detection package displayed.

"This radiation detection package?" she asked with a smirk.

Shepard's suspicions were on high alert. That radiation package was only available to Alliance military although it was known that some black-market groups had managed to get their hands on it. _Just who are these Jee'dai?_ he wondered. Outwardly, however, he restricted his response to a single raised eyebrow.

Ahsoka saw the suspicion in his eyes and felt it in his emotions; however, he shook it off after a moment. "In that case, patch into our comm frequency," he said, giving her the channel. "Let us know if you find the bomb."

They split up, staying within sight of each other but far enough apart that they covered a lot of ground. "Commander," Williams called out from the northeast side of the spaceport, uncomfortably close to the geth ship. "I think I've got something." Shepard broke into a run as Ashley came under attack by several dozen geth. "Alenko, Tano! Northeast quadrant, now!" he ordered as he ran.

A few tense seconds later, he slid into cover across from Williams. They were between the bomb and the geth, but the geth fire was too concentrated for either of them to get close enough to defuse it. As an N7, Shepard had received training on defusing bombs, but he wasn't as good as Alenko. Unfortunately, Alenko had been near the opposite end of the spaceport and wouldn't arrive for several more seconds. Seconds they may not have. "Gunny, take my assault rifle," Shepard ordered, sliding it across to her. "Lay down covering fire with yours until it overheats then switch to mine. Keep me covered!"

As Williams began laying down covering fire, Shepard moved next to the bomb and began the careful process of removing the covering protecting the vital components. As he worked, Tano arrived and, seeing what he was doing, moved into position near Williams laying down covering fire for them. Shepard had just finished removing the covering and was about to start defusing the bomb when he _knew_ with absolute certainty that he needed to move. Not questioning his instinct, he rolled backwards as a purple laser sword ignited and came down right where he had been crouched down. As his new opponent ignited her lightsaber, her tactical cloak fell, allowing him to see that she was a woman, probably human, but wore a recon hood that covered her whole head. He could also see in that moment that she had a robotic arm and the few pieces of flesh he could see showed the glow of implants. Before he had even finished standing back up, she was attacking him again. Once more trusting his instincts, he stepped forward under her swing and grabbed her sword arm, trying to disarm her, only for her to put her other hand in front of his chest. The next thing Shepard knew, he was flying backwards and collided hard with a crate.

Shepard's head cleared enough just in time to see his assailant with the laser sword flying through the air towards him, sword poised to strike him down. However, her strike was intercepted by a pair of white laser swords wielded by Ahsoka Tano.

"Go!" Ahsoka shouted unnecessarily at the Commander, who had already moved back next to Williams. Alenko had arrived in the meantime and had busied himself disarming the nuke. Williams gave Shepard his gun back, and they continued to provide covering fire for Alenko and Tano.

Ahsoka, meanwhile, had been quickly forced on the defensive as she tried to gauge this new opponent's style. She was obviously a Force-user, and Ahsoka could sense her thoughts, so she was organic. However, only a Jedi should have or know how to make a lightsaber, and all the Jedi in the Milky Way were accounted for, weren't they? As she dodged a strike that singed her armor, she resolved to get to the bottom of this later and blasted her opponent with a Force push into several crates near the geth.

Shepard and Williams quickly moved to take advantage of this vulnerability, targeting their laser sword wielding opponent. All of a sudden, and for no discernible reason, Shepard felt a wave of panic come over him. Shaking it off, he saw Williams start to back away and turn around, looking like she was about to run. He also saw the normally unflappable Alenko pale and shaking in his boots as he continued to work on the device.

Shepard sprinted out of cover over to Williams, grabbed her arm, and threw her back against the crates she had been using as cover. "Get it together, Marine! We hold this line no matter what!"

"Sir, yes sir!" she replied as she pushed the panic to the back of her mind and military discipline reasserted itself.

"Alenko, how much more time do you need?" shouted Shepard.

"Twenty seconds, sir!" replied Alenko. Shepard looked back to see him back to his normal, stoic demeanor.

"Williams, get up to that platform and flank the big one," he said, pointing out a large red Geth that had just made itself known. "I'll cover you. Its shields are weakest over the antenna."

* * *

Ahsoka felt the dark side from this strange attacker, followed by the sudden fear of her allies. _Clearly not a Jedi_ , Ahsoka thought, _who are you?_ Ahsoka leapt at her opponent as the not-Jedi turned around and unleashed lightning from her fingertips at her. Ahsoka caught the lightning on one blade and began her attack with the other. Ahsoka was fluid and graceful, switching forms every few seconds. In contrast, her opponent was aggressive even in her defense but not careless enough in her aggression to make a mistake.

Ahsoka drew her strength from the Force; her opponent, however, was not yet skilled enough in the dark side to use it to its fullest potential and was forced to rely primarily on her fighting prowess. As a result, she began to tire. Seeing this, Ahsoka moved to end the fight. Thrust right, swing high left, low right, thrust left. Pause, show weakness, turn aside the thrust with left, up through the robotic wrist holding the lightsaber with right.

Ahsoka blasted her opponent against a nearby wall with the Force and held one lightsaber to the girl's throat. Her opponent thus subdued, she was able to take a closer look at her lightsaber. To her shock, she recognized the hilt. "Where did you get this lightsaber?" she demanded. When her captive was not forthcoming with an answer, Ahsoka moved to remove her mask. But, just as her hand touched the hood, _BWAAHHM!_ The Presence from before made itself known again, forcing its way into Ahsoka's head and causing great pain. Stumbling backward, she was dimly aware of the not-Jedi girl grabbing her lightsaber and sprinting away as someone took potshots at her. Then, someone was shaking Ahsoka and shouting something at her.

"Tano! Tano, are you all right?" Williams asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Ahsoka as she recovered. Internally, however, she was very uneasy. Someone powerful enough to incapacitate a Jedi Master through the Force was very dangerous; for him or her to do so multiple times without the Jedi seeing or sensing them was worse than bad news.

"Good to hear. The ninja girl ran off to that giant ship just before it bugged out. Everyone check to see if the beacon is still here," said Shepard.

As they reached the northeast edge of the spaceport, they heard the distinctive sound of a lightsaber cutting through metal. All four rushed up the nearby steps to see a pale humanoid cutting through a final group of geth near what could only be the Prothean beacon. Shepard and the other marines raised their guns, but Ahsoka forced it down with her hand. "Easy Commander, she's with me."

Shepard stared at her for a long moment, then motioned for everyone to stand down. "Joker," he radioed the _Normandy_ , "We have the beacon. Awaiting pickup."

"Roger that, Commander," came the reply.

The new Jee'dai turned towards the newcomers, laser sword raised, then depowered it and hung it on her belt when she saw who they were. "Good to see you made it, Ahsoka," she said. "I was beginning to worry."

Ahsoka introduced Amalek to the marines as Mohlabani limped up. "You're late," said Amalek. "Is it bad?" she asked, indicating the injury.

Mohlabani just chuckled. "I'll live." He nodded to the marines. "Commander, Lieutenant, Gunnery Chief, it's good to see you all in one piece." He turned back to the Jedi and pulled them off to the side. "I just made contact with Ga'alen. They managed to evacuate nearly everyone in the eastern half of Vida, but we were too late for most people close to the spaceport. The only humans I saw were either dead or turned into those husk things."

Amalek shook her head in consternation. "The Force may have been with us today, but this is troubling. A sudden attack by the Geth of all things, on Eden Prime, backed up by a Force user that can mentally incapacitate us…" she trailed off. "This is bad."

"It gets worse," said Ahsoka. "I fought a woman who wielded a purple lightsaber and the Dark Side."

"What?" exclaimed Amalek. "Could the Empire have followed us here?"

"I don't know. But I intend to find out. The thing is, although I didn't recognize the fighting style, I did recognize the lightsaber. It belonged to Master Haart." Mohlabani's eyebrows rose in surprise as Amalek sucked in a breath. Katarina Haart had been a Jedi Master and good friend from back home who died six years prior.

"We need…" began Ahsoka before she was interrupted by Shepard shouting, "WILLIAMS!" The Jedi turned to see Chief Williams being pulled towards the Prothean beacon before Commander Shepard grabbed her and threw her to the side. Unfortunately, he was pulled up in front of it as the beacon activated. Alenko went to pull him down, but Ahsoka quickly yelled "No! You don't know what that will do to him."

The beacon pulsed in the Force as Shepard's mouth opened in a silent scream. Sebete saw it happen in the Force seconds before it did. "Get down!" yelled Mohlabani, just before the beacon exploded.

Alenko and Williams picked themselves up and rushed over to the Commander, who had been knocked unconscious by the blast. Kaiden radioed the _Normandy_ to inform them of the change in status then swore, "Damn it! Completely FUBAR now."

None of the Jedi were paying attention to the Lieutenant. The Force now swirled around Shepard. Ahsoka had heard about such an event from the older Masters back home, in the old Order, but she had not been strong enough in the Force to sense it herself at the time. Still, she knew what it meant: this person was Important to events that were to come. "Where is your next destination?" she asked, interrupting Alenko's rant.

Alenko took a moment to calm himself then said, "The Citadel. We're on a mission from the Council."

That settled it. Ahsoka was already considering visiting the Citadel after her run-in with the not-quite-dark Jedi. She exchanged glances with Masters Sebete and Rizhou, who both nodded. They agreed. "Lieutenant, I would like to request permission to come to the Citadel with you."

"I'll check with the captain, but we're not a taxi service, you know. However, I am going to recommend that you be transferred to the _Normandy's_ ground crew, Chief Williams," replied Alenko. Ashley smiled faintly beneath her helmet.

"Who is your captain?" asked Ahsoka.

"David Anderson."

Ahsoka grinned. "I don't think there will be any problem at all."

*According to the Mass Effect Codex, Eden Prime has a day/night cycle equal to 64.1 Earth hours.

 **Here we go, a new story. This one is going to be an epic, probably 2 part story. I am very busy at this point in my life, so updates will be few and far between; however, I do have this story planned out for 40+ chapters and 6 major arcs so far. I considered adding a prologue, but decided instead to start _in medias res_ and have what would have been in the prologue go in subsequent chapters. **

**Oh, I almost forgot. I don't currently have a beta for this story. If anyone would like to beta future chapters, PM me, but please do keep in mind that I won't be writing often (on the order of a chapter every 3 months or longer).**

 **And since I didn't include it up front, I do not own Star Wars or Mass Effect, nor am I making any money off this story.**

 **Till next time!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I do not own Star Wars or Mass Effect, nor am I making any money off this story.**

 **Chapter 2:**

Reapers.

A computer chip with wires extending from it, laying in a pool of blood.

 _Reapers_.

An open chest cavity showing two hearts, but only one is beating.

 _ **Reapers**_.

A red lake surrounded by a plain of chunks of some type of meat. Is that a head?

 _ **Reapers**_.

"Doctor Chakwas, I think he's waking up!"

Shepard groaned as he slowly regained consciousness. The first thing he felt was the pain. He groaned as he sat up and the silvery hair and stern, kind visage of the _Normandy_ 's medical officer, Karin Chakwas, swam into view. "How are you feeling, Commander?" she asked.

He took a moment to gain his bearing and automatically began checking his surroundings. Two women, one human, one definitely not, stood against the wall. _Are those horns?_ He shook his head to clear some of the cobwebs.

"Like I tried to outdrink a krogan then got into a bar fight with him." At Chakwas' concerned look, he waved her off. "I'll be fine. What happened?"

A woman stepped away from where she had been lounging on the wall of the room. Williams, wasn't it? "It was my fault, sir. I got too close to the beacon and must have set it off somehow. You pulled me out of the way, but it caught you up instead. It lifted you up and looked like it was doing something to you before it exploded and knocked you out. The geth had fled the system by that point, so Lieutenant Alenko, Ahsoka Tano, and I brought you on board."

Alan punched the bed in frustration, drawing a frown from Chakwas. "So we lost the beacon, lost Nihlus, lost the geth, and damn near lost the colony. Damn it! Please tell me there's some good news."

The door slid open in the middle of Shepard's rant, admitting Captain Anderson. "The good news, Commander, is that we didn't lose the colony. We also have the opportunity to expose Saren as a traitor. We're on our way to the Citadel right now to do so. I'd say that qualifies."

Shepard, Williams, and Chakwas snapped to attention. "At ease."

"How's our XO, Doctor?" Anderson asked.

"Physically, he's fine. However, while he, you, were out I detected an increase in rapid eye movement and changes in your brain waves consistent with intense dreaming."

"More like a nightmare. Or a horrible vision," replied Alan.

"A vision? I wasn't aware the Protheans could create artifacts that could store visions," said Ahsoka.

Instead of responding, Shepard looked quizzically at Captain Anderson. "It's alright, Commander, she has clearance. Commander Shepard, meet Ahsoka Tano, Grand Master of the Jedi and leader of the intergalactic refugees from the Maffei galaxy."

"Yes, yes, a pleasure," Ahsoka said curtly. "The vision?"

Shepard frowned both at Tano's rudeness to the Captain, on his ship no less!, and at Anderson's pronunciation of Jee'dai. Putting it out of his mind for the moment, he responded. "I saw," began Shepard, "I don't know what I saw. Pain, death. Synthetics – geth, maybe – slaughtering organics, butchering them. It was disjointed, confusing. Unclear."

"Perhaps the beacon was damaged?" suggested Sergeant Williams. "Might explain why it exploded."

"Hmm," shrugged Captain Anderson, "maybe. Miss Tano, do you have any leads on the Jedi you faced?"

"I know that she wasn't a Jedi. She used a number of techniques we don't teach, none of which she was proficient in. Unfortunately, that doesn't really help narrow it down. The only other lead we have at the moment is her lightsaber. The one she used originally belonged to Master Katarina Haart, one of the ones who came over with the rest of us. Six years ago, Katarina was recruiting among the human colonies near the Traverse when her transport was attacked by Batarians. We believed she was taken prisoner and urged the Alliance to go after her. However, the Admiralty felt it wasn't worth risking war with the Batarians over 1 individual. It took Elysium for them to actually do something but by then it was too late," Ahsoka replied, letting a bit of anger seep into her voice near the end.

Anderson placed his hand on Ahsoka's shoulder in a show of sympathy, at which Shepard narrowed his eyes in thought.

* * *

For the next several hours, Ahsoka busied herself in the armory, deep in thought. A lightsaber wielder. In this galaxy. Who knew how to use it and the Force. No one but a Jedi should be able to, yet somehow this individual could.

She wielded Katarina's lightsaber, but did not have her Force presence. In fact, as Ahsoka reviewed the fight in her mind, she could not recall a Force presence at all from the attacker. So, someone who could shield themselves. She also used Dark Side techniques and wore a hood.

 _Could Katarina have fallen?_ Ahsoka hated the idea that any of the refugee Jedi could have turned to the Dark Side after seeing what happened to their fellow Jedi at the hands of the Sith. _Then again, Barriss._ But Barriss never utilized Dark Side techniques, neither against her nor Anakin, according to what he'd told her. Ahsoka decided that while she couldn't discount the possibility of Katarina having fallen, it was highly unlikely. _But if it's not Katarina, then who could it be?_ The real question. Perhaps Katarina was captured and tortured? Could the Emperor have finally decided to pursue them?

Ahsoka was still mulling the problem over several hours later as she headed to the mess. Shepard, Alenko, and Williams joined her after a few minutes.

"Back with us, Tano?" said Ashley. Ahsoka gave her a questioning look. "You were lost in your own little world back in the armory for the past few hours."

"Sorry about that," Ahsoka said, smiling apologetically. "I've been trying to solve the mystery of the other attacker. I have a number of ideas but nothing concrete. I'll need to discuss this with my associates at the Citadel and the Council. Captain Anderson was very kind to give me a ride."

"Speaking of that," said Shepard, "you clearly know Captain Anderson. How?"

"He was on the ship that found us. He quite literally saved the life of every Maffeian refugee."

"Can you tell us about it?" asked Kaiden. "I mean, if it's not too painful to remember, that is."

"Any pain has long since dulled," she said. "What have you heard?"

"That your galaxy had been conquered by a dictator who was in the process of installing a totalitarian regime," replied Kaiden. "At least, that's what the official codex says. It also says that you had fought in the war against him, and when your side lost, you gathered a group of individuals who were likely to be targeted, bought a couple of ships, and set out for our galaxy. Not much else is in there, just some techno mumbo jumbo about how your ships traveled without element zero."

Ahsoka gave a wry chuckle. "Some of the refugees must have helped write that entry. A number of them have made me out to be some kind of folk hero when I merely played a small role.

"It also got a few things wrong. The Emperor didn't conquer the Maffei galaxy; the Senate elected him Emperor. My galaxy had been ruled by the Galactic Republic, with the Senate as our ruling body, for about five thousand years. However, the Senate and governmental bureaucracy had become corrupt, with most every person in a position of power looking to benefit only themselves, their planet, or their race. Very few Senators cared about the galaxy as a whole. The man who eventually became Emperor took advantage of this corruption. He utilized it to get himself elected Supreme Chancellor then had one of his pawns entice a number of systems that were tired of the corruption into seceding from the Republic and forming a new government.

"He and his pawn orchestrated a long, bloody war during which the Supreme Chancellor was able to convince the Senate to grant him more and more power and allow him to remain Chancellor long after his term was up. I fought in this war for a time, until I was framed for murder by someone I thought was my closest friend and betrayed by those who should have defended me. After that, I moved to the sidelines, content to help those affected by the war.

"Meanwhile, when the Supreme Chancellor was ready, he had his pawns in the systems that rebelled killed and had the generals of the army all declared traitors. The generals were not loyal to him personally and would have stood against him. They were slaughtered by their own men. Then, he had the Senate declare the Republic an Empire and himself Emperor, which they did gladly. The applause in the Senate as they declared him Emperor still haunts my nightmares.

By this point, all the off-duty crew had gathered to hear Ahsoka's tale. "So you left," said Ashley.

"Actually, I tried to fight," said Ahsoka. "I joined a fledgling rebellion against the Empire headed by several of my old friends who had been generals in the Cl-Civil war and survived Palpatine's initial Purge. We sabotaged Imperial supply stations, military bases, even stole a small ship once. But after a couple years, an event occurred that convinced me that we could not beat the Empire." She put up a hand to stop their questions. "I can't discuss it; it's classified." This resulted in a couple of groans.

"However, I knew I couldn't serve or submit to the Empire either, so I spent the next several years gathering funds and allies to flee. At first, we planned to hide in the unexplored regions of the galaxy, but then we learned that the Emperor had been ordering explorations into them. So, unable to fight and unwilling to serve, we decided to take our chances fleeing the galaxy. By this time, a couple thousand of us were involved. We were able to get three cargo ships and load them with supplies and sleeping pods.

"Even with all our preparation, the journey took five of our galactic standard years – nearly five and a half of yours. A few months from the rim of the Milky Way, one of the ships collided with some debris that knocked out their engines and damaged their life support. We transferred as many people and supplies to the remaining two ships as we could, but we still had to leave most of them – several hundred people – behind. Have any of you had to leave friends or family behind to die? I hope you never have to. We thought we knew loss – we'd left behind our home planets, our cultures, our races, our galaxy – but we were all people of action. Yet, we were helpless to do anything for them. We left the comms open on our ships as long as we could to allow anyone to say goodbye, but there was nothing we could _do_.

"We hold a day of remembrance for them every year.

"Despite rationing the food and performing regular maintenance, we were running low on food and the ships were starting to break down. Worse, our sterilizers were failing and sickness was starting to move through the ships. Then, when we reached the Milky Way, we couldn't find an inhabited system. You may not realize it, but the mass relays and your engines severely limit the number of planets you can inhabit. There are vast portions of this galaxy that remain unexplored and uninhabited. Finally, one ship ran out of fuel and could go no further. It was stranded in the space between systems.

"Those on the ship that was still working could not bear to leave another group of friends and families to die alone. It was also breaking down and would likely die soon, too. We didn't want to die alone. So we took a vote and decided to move everyone onto the broken down ship and send one person on alone to see if there was anyone who could help us. That person ended up being me. I had one day's worth of food rations, enough water, whatever air could be recycled before the CO2 scrubbers broke down, and enough fuel to last a week.

"I turned off everything I could to conserve fuel and picked a direction. A week went by and I had found nothing. My fuel had run out and I was just drifting on inertia. The life support systems had started to flicker when I picked up a ship on the sensor and was able to make contact. As you may know, the ship was captained by Chester Pullman, but what you may not know is that his XO was David Anderson, your captain, though at the time, he was a lieutenant commander. Pullman initially did not believe my story and thought I was trying to trick him into some sort of turian or batarian trap. However, Captain Anderson was able to convince the captain to at least verify my story. I directed them back to the ship, which took another two weeks. By the time we arrived, the life support had already failed, and my people were slowly suffocating and freezing to death. So, like I said before, Captain Anderson literally saved all our lives."

Silence reigned as the crew digested what they had heard. Slowly, people moved off to their post or broke into smaller groups and muttering could be heard throughout the deck. Soon, Shepard, Alenko, Williams, and Tano were alone again at their table.

For a while, no one spoke. Eventually, Alenko tried to put what he was feeling into words. "Wow…I don't…How…hmm…"

"Come on," said Shepard, standing up, "Let's get back to work." When Ashley and Kaiden looked quizzically at him, he continued, "You need time to process what we've heard. Best not be idle in the meantime."

"You seem to be taking it rather well, Commander," said Williams.

"Let's just say that Tano's not the first hopeless case the Captain has believed in," Shepard replied.

"Commander," said Ahsoka "is there anything I can do to help around the ship? I'd prefer to not be a burden."

"I'll need to check your clearance level, but until then, you can help Williams maintain the armory and the Mako." Shepard then left, climbing the stairs to the CIC.

"What do you suppose Shepard meant, about hopeless cases?" Ashley whispered to Kaiden as they got up.

"All I know is it's not my business."

* * *

Ahsoka and Ashley spent the next several hours in relative silence, punctuated by small talk. Eventually, though, they began to connect over life on Eden Prime, which of course led Ashley to ask about the abilities Ahsoka and her opponent had displayed in the fight.

"Classified" was all Ahsoka would say.

"But I saw your laser sword thingy and the lightning coming from the attacker's _hand_ , and the both of you moving faster than should have been possible, and I got terrified for no reason like a damn green private! Plus, we saw another one of you Jee'dai, a Maffeian human, use his biotics with a finer control than any other human! Is that something all Jee'dai can do?"

"It's classified, sorry," said Ahsoka.

"Who are the Jee'dai, really? And why all the secrecy? You said you were a martial arts school, but it's more than that, isn't it? Are you some kind of top secret biotics training program? That's what it is, isn't it?"

"Look, Ashley," Ahsoka said, exasperated "you seem nice. But please, stop asking questions that I can't answer. Everything about the Jee'dai – who we are, what we can and can't do, and so on – is classified well above your clearance level. So please, stop asking."

"Hmmph. I don't like how so much of your group is apparently shrouded in secrecy."

"If you feel this way, I certainly hope word doesn't get out to the press. I might end up doing something insane like punch a reporter if they start peppering me with questions," Ahsoka said, causing Ashley to giggle.

" _We're approaching the Citadel_ " said the pilot over the intercom. " _Commander Shepard, Lieutenant Alenko, Sergeant Williams, and Miss Tano, Captain Anderson wants you ready to disembark as soon as we're parked."_

"Roger that, Flight Lieutenant," said Ashley to the ceiling. "Come up to the cockpit with me, I've never seen the Citadel before."

* * *

Ashley, along with Kaiden and Alan, marveled at the Citadel as they arrived. Ahsoka had seen it several times before so hung back, instead making polite conversation with one of the crew members who was fascinated by her montrals and lekku. As soon as the pilot, who she learned preferred to be called by his nickname, Joker, guided the ship into port, Captain Anderson joined the ground team, and he led them and Ahsoka to a sky car that was waiting to bring them to the Council chambers.

By the time they reached the Citadel Council, the human ambassador Udina had nearly finished presenting the evidence against Saren. The Council, composed of a salarian, an asari, and a turian, stood on a raised dais overlooking the council chambers. A greenish gray hologram of Saren emitted from a platform to the Council's right while Udina stood on a platform beneath all of them. What followed was a series of long winded accusations from Ambassador Udina and short but passionate accusations from Captain Anderson and Commander Shepard, each time rebutted by cool denials by Saren. Ahsoka couldn't help but notice that, similar to her own trial, no evidence of either guilt or innocence was presented; however, she bitterly realized from the Council's demeanor, it looked like Saren would be declared innocent regardless.

Ahsoka hated thinking back to her own trial, so she busied herself with studying Saren. The turian stood with a smug demeanor, probably because he knew he would not be found guilty, Ahsoka thought, and looked at the humans with bored disdain. Then his synthetic arm caught her eye. It looked familiar to her, and she quickly sent off a message on her omni-tool.

The asari counselor cleared her throat, capturing Ahsoka's attention. "The Council finds no evidence of Saren's involvement with the geth. Ambassador Udina, your request to remove Saren's Spectre status is denied.

Saren smugly said, "I'm glad to see that justice prevailed," before his hologram faded.

"This session of the Council is adjourned," said the asari.

As the Council left, Udina turned to Ahsoka and Anderson. "I need to see you two and Master Gellar in my office in an hour to discuss the attack." Both nodded.

Next, Udina turned to Shepard and the other humans to try to figure out how they could gather more evidence. Ahsoka tuned out their conversation as she sensed a familiar presence coming up behind her and heard, "Ahsoka!" She turned around to see Hana Gellar coming up to her, arms spread for a hug. Hana was one of the Jedi who came over from the Maffei with them and Ahsoka's oldest, closest friend. She was a soft green Twi'lek and stood at about an even height with Ahsoka and wore a dress similar to that of an Asari diplomat. Ahsoka had met Hana shortly after leaving the Jedi following her trial. Hana had left the Jedi after the first year of the Clone Wars, protesting that Jedi were supposed to serve as keepers of the peace, not instruments of war. They had become fast friends, and when Ahsoka came up with the idea to leave the galaxy, Hana was one of the first to join her.

"Hana! It's so good to see you again." Ahsoka grinned as they embraced. "Come," Ahsoka said, "meet the soldiers that gave me a lift from Eden Prime. This is Gunnery Sergeant Williams, Lieutenant Alenko, and Commander Shepard. And of course, you recognize Captain Anderson. This is Master Hana Gellar. She's a Jee'dai Master, like me, and the liason between the Maffeian refugees and the rest of the galaxy."

Hana grinned at Anderson, "Captain Anderson, I heard about your promotion. Congratulations!"

Anderson smiled, "Thank you, old friend. I believe congratulations are in order for you as well, Ambassador."

Hana waved her hand, "That's just a fancy title the pencil pushers gave me to justify permanently sending me to the Citadel." In truth, Hana had become surprisingly influential over the last nine years as the voice of the Maffeian refugees. Initially, as the galaxy reeled from the shock that life existed in other galaxies and could find their way to the Milky Way, there was great debate among the species as to who should house the intergalactic travelers. The asari wanted to appear to be gracious representatives of the galaxy and offered to settle them on a colony in asari space. The turians had to rescind their offer once they learned that all the species in the Maffei were levo chirality. The salarians, surprisingly, didn't want so many unknowns anywhere near Sur'Kesh. They did, however, demand technology. The humans saw an opportunity to gain galactic prestige and offered Eden Prime, their best colony. Many humans thought it the best idea since it was humans who discovered and rescued the refugees, not to mention that about a third of the refugees looked nearly identical to humans.

Eventually, Hana suggested a compromise. Their ships, half their droids, and any other technologies would be turned over to the Council. The refugees would live on one of the wards of the Citadel and be represented as a group within the Systems Alliance. The refugees asked for Ahsoka to represent them, but she turned them down saying she would not make a good diplomat. She suggested Hana, who was accepted immediately. After the first five years, however, it became clear that the interests of the refugees aligned more often with those of the Citadel than those of the humans. When the refugees began to grumble about their voices not being heard, Hana stepped in again to offer a solution. She proposed to act as an emissary for the refugees on the Citadel reporting to the human ambassador to the Council. The refugees had to give up their seat in the Alliance Parliament, which worked to sooth the cries of the radical Terra Firma party, a group gaining power who wanted human governance to be left to the humans, and their sympathizers. Unbeknownst to all but those with the required clearance, an addition to her numerous ambassadorial duties Hana was also the liaison between the Jedi and the Council. She had been the one to secure the Temple site on Eden Prime and convinced the Council to allow them to recruit members from the various races.

Hana shook hands with each of them, and then said, "Would you happen to be the same Alan Shepard who took out that batarian base on Torfan two years ago?" Shepard's face became stony, and he nodded warily. "When Ambassador Udina let slip that you were nominated for Spectre consideration, I requested the military's reports from that operation. What you accomplished was nothing short of legendary." She briefly chuckled at Alenko's and Williams' surprised faces. "Ahsoka and I both fought in our galaxy's civil war. We led troops into battle ourselves and understand the trials of command. Besides, any commander who orders his men to assault an unassailable fortress, then joins his men in the assault, and succeeds in taking said fortress deserves the praise.

"Now, sorry to cut this conversation short, but Ambassador Udina needs to see us and he doesn't like to be kept waiting," said Hana. Both Jee'dai bowed and walked away.

"Nobody ever said you personally led the assault on Torfan, Commander," Kaiden said after a moment.

"What did you think happened, Lieutenant? That I gave the orders, then stood back and just read the casualty reports?"

"Well, you are an officer," Ashley replied. "A proper officer, too. Giving orders and reading casualty reports is what officers do."

"I suppose the ones that come through Annapolis do," Shepard said, referring to the Navy's school for officers. "But I'm an N7. We work for a living."

* * *

Ahsoka and Hana entered Ambassador Udina's office to see him having a heated discussion with Captain Anderson.

"We should have pushed them harder!" said Anderson. "Instead we got empty promises and a Spectre with a grudge against humans running loose in the Traverse."

"We had no leverage to go after Saren, Captain, and you know it. Just a name overheard by a drowsy dock worker. As for the Geth, the Council doesn't care enough about humans to do anything."

"Doesn't care-!" sputtered Anderson.

Udina sighed. "You may be a great soldier, Captain, but you have a lot to learn about political realities. The other races, Asari and Salarians especially, vacillate between thinking us apes who have just climbed down out of the trees and the second coming of the Rachni. So no, they don't care, and some would prefer it if the Geth managed to wipe us out. The krogan and quarians are proof enough of how much being a Citadel member race matters to the Council. However, Arcturus as well as the majority of humanity is still in favor of being a member race, so we are." At that, he turned around to see the two Jedi.

"Ah good, you're here. Now we can finally get started. Follow me." Udina led them down several hallways and up an elevator to a conference room. On the way he explained, "The Council wants a report on the Jedi you faced on Eden Prime. I must warn you, they are very nervous. Your tales of the Clone Wars and the little you shared of the history of the Jedi and Sith have made them apprehensive of anything resembling the Sith. Find some way to appease them, or your order could soon find themselves evicted from Citadel space."

The two Jedi nodded as they entered. As they took seats at the table, Ahsoka received a message on her omni-tool which prompted her to quickly discuss quietly with Master Gellar. As they were speaking, the Council arrived. Before anyone spoke, all 7 individuals opened a program on their omni-tools which ensured that the ensuing conversation could not be recorded or overheard. The humans, Ahsoka recalled, had affectionately dubbed it the Cone of Silence, for some reason.

Once all Cones of Silence were up, the asari councilor spoke. "Miss Tano, what can you tell us about the Jedi you faced on Eden Prime?"

"At the moment, all I can say is that she was not a Jedi. All of our members have been accounted for since the attack. In addition, she used several techniques both of the Force and the blade that we do not teach. For the moment, we have two leads. First, her lightsaber originally belonged to Master Katerina Haart, who you may remember, went missing, presumed dead, six years ago."

"How can you be certain it was her weapon?" asked the salarian councilor.

In response, Ahsoka took out one of her lightsabers and laid it on the table, as did Hana. "We hand craft our own lightsaber hilts, and every Jedi's is unique to them. Because of that, I could find my lightsaber in a pile of one hundred lightsabers, and since I knew Katerina for many years, I could also pick hers out." The councilor nodded briefly and motioned for her to continue.

"Second, the person I faced had a synthetic right arm. It was made by the same people who created Saren's arm."

This pronouncement shocked both the Council as well as Ambassador Udina and Captain Anderson. "How can you possibly know that?" asked the turian counselor.

"My mentor had a synthetic arm, Counselor, and they were a common technology in the Maffei. When I saw Saren's hologram in the Council chambers, I noticed his right arm and contacted some people. I'm working on getting some images of the attacker's arm, but I assure you, whoever gave my opponent her arm, gave Saren his."

"Saren is one of the primary shareholders of Synthetic Insights," said the turian councilor. "I believe Saren commissioned them to build his replacement arm. More importantly, they are a massive corporation, selling both within and outside of Citadel space. What you have is hardly a lead, let alone proof that Saren was in league with your attacker," he finished dismissively.

The asari councilor spoke next. "When you first described your Order and what you can do, we allowed you to remain and recruit members of our galaxy if you updated your Code to reflect the common values of the Milky Way and created contingency plans in case one of your own went rogue. We Asari understand the beauty of being able to overrule the laws of physics at will, but we also know how deadly those who do so without regard for others can be. This is the reason the Justicars have such broad authority. Every asari knows that the consequence for abusing their gift is swift and immediate death. Your contingencies appear to have failed, Masters Jedi. Find out the identity of your attacker and end her threat, or consider your order banished from Citadel space."

"There is one other possibility we have to consider, councilors," said Hana. "The Emperor knows that several Jedi fled the galaxy. He may have decided to send assassins or even some of his army to hunt us down. If he has, they may very well have allied with the geth in order to get to us. Worst case scenario, they demand that you either turn over all Jedi, including those of the Milky Way, to them, in which case we will be tortured and killed, or worse. If you were to refuse them, you would be looking at an intergalactic war."

"We have not been contacted by any representatives of this Emperor, but we will take your warning under advisement," said the turian councilor.

After that, the Council left. Udina and Anderson went to meet with Shepard and discuss potential leads they had found on Saren's involvement at Eden Prime. Meanwhile, Masters Tano and Gellar remained in the conference room. Ahsoka fetched a droid to establish a secure connection with the rest of the Jedi Council. The six founding members of the New Jedi Order, all of whom had fled the Maffei with the refugees, had formed a Council of leadership similar to that of the old Order. With the passing of Master Haart, the Council was composed of Knight Ga'alen Tek, Masters Hana Gellar, Amalek Rizhou, and Mohlabani Sebete, and was led by Grand Master Ahsoka Tano.

Ahsoka spoke first. "What do we have so far?" asked Ahsoka.

Amalek said, "We know your assailant was female, had a synthetic arm and other implants, and used the Dark Side but not extensively. Like you told the Council, we have determined she is not an active Jedi. I can also now say that she was not someone we are currently evaluating for training, nor was she someone we decided not to train."

"The person who attacked me used recognizable techniques and was obviously skilled in the Force and in fighting with a lightsaber. She knew techniques that we teach and some that we do not. Unless I'm missing something, there are three options. One, someone else in this galaxy knows the ways of the Force and is teaching or has independently discovered reliance on the dark side. Two, despite our efforts, we were somehow infiltrated, though that would not explain her knowledge of the dark side. Or three, Darth Sidious or Vader has finally decided to track us down."

"There has been no darkening of the Force," said Master Sebete, "and without that, not even Sith can hide."

"So we think," countered Ga'alen. "The Sith may have invented a new technique or rediscovered an old one. However, I agree it seems unlikely"

Ahsoka frowned, her brows furrowed in thought. "The original Order fell in part because it was too arrogant to believe the Sith could rise without their knowledge. I think we have to at least consider the possibility that somehow they exist here."

"I can't see how we could have been infiltrated," said Amalek. "We monitor everything too closely."

Amalek spoke up, "One thing has been bothering me. The mental attacks we faced. Every Jedi on Eden Prime felt it when that ship arrived and when it left. Like you, the first one knocked many of us unconscious.

"It was strange and disturbing," she continued, "I did not sense the Dark Side at all. There was no hate, no malice, just…inevitability. We would die and no amount of fighting or resistance would change that. To be honest, I think I would have preferred the Dark Side."

"Now that you mention it," said Ahsoka, "I didn't sense the Dark Side either. However, I did sense a great deal of pain, almost as if every being in the universe was being tortured at once."

Hana spoke up, her voice soft and slightly trembling, "How can that be? Incapacitating a Jedi Master from a distance without using the Dark Side? That's not even something Sidious could do."

"I don't know," Ahsoka replied. Turning her attention to the three holograms, she instructed, "Accelerate the training against mental attacks. We have to be ready for the next time whatever attacked us does so again. You also need to step up the lightsaber training. In fact, increase training across the board."

"Where will you be?" asked Ga'alen.

"I need to stay with Commander Shepard," she replied. When the others started to protest, she spoke sharply saying, "Look! The Force now swirls around the Commander; it has ever since he activated that beacon." She paused, calming herself. "I meditated the entire journey to the Citadel on this. The Force wants me with the Commander, of that I am certain." The others reluctantly assented. "Mohlabani, I must ask you to lead the Temple in my absence."

"Very well," he said. "Good luck Ahsoka, and may the Force be with you."

"And with you."

The three holograms faded. Hana and Ahsoka hugged again before exchanging goodbyes. Hana left for her office, and Ahsoka went towards Ambassador Udina's office.

* * *

Ahsoka approached Ambassador Udina's office as the door opened to reveal the Ambassador as well as Captain Anderson, the ground team from Eden Prime, and a turian, a quarian, and a massive krogan. "Miss Tano," Udina said curtly, "you have something?"

"Nothing concrete yet, but we have eliminated some possibilities," she said, extending a data pad towards him.

"Hmph. Not what I'd hoped, but it will have to do for now. Please, walk with us." He turned and began to walk at a brisk pace towards Presidium Tower.

Ahsoka matched his pace and asked, "I take it you found something against Saren?"

Udina nodded, "The quarian over there retrieved a recording from the memory core of a deactivated geth that implicates Saren in the attack on Eden Prime."

"Fantastic," Ahsoka replied. She then fell back in step with Commander Shepard. "Looks like you've been busy, Commander. Care to introduce me to your new friends?"

"Foiled two assassination attempts: one on us, one on the lovely Miss nar Rayya," he said, gesturing to the quarian.

"It's Tali'Zorah, Commander," she said, her modulated, accented voice. "Rayya is my ship name, and nar means I'm on my pilgrimage." Then, she paused as what he said registered. "And what do you mean, lovely? You can't even see my face."

Shepard and Ahsoka chuckled at her blustering. Then, Shepard said, "It's thanks to Tali that we have the evidence against Saren. Garrus Vakarian and Wrex," he nodded to the turian C-Sec officer and the scarred krogan, respectively, "helped locate her and stop Saren's assassins. This is Ahsoka Tano, leader of the Maffei refugees and some sort of martial arts academy thing."

"Really?" Tali said excitedly. "What's dark space like? How did your live ships work? What about fuel?" Ahsoka was taken aback but answered the eager girl's questions as best as she could until they reached the Council chambers. Garrus interrupted once to ask after a turian friend who had gone to study with the Jee'dai, and Wrex wondered out loud how the training affected how long it took to kill someone.

Everyone fell silent as the Council entered again, looking annoyed at being summoned. The turian councilor spoke first, and his irritation with the humans was clear through everyone's translators. "Ambassador Udina, I hope you are not wasting more of our time with baseless accusations."

"No, Councilor," replied Udina. "We have new evidence implicating multiple individuals in the attack on Eden Prime. This quarian, Miss Tali'Zorah, managed to recover a recording from a disabled geth unit. It was of a conversation between those leading the geth that occurred shortly after the attack."

"Glad to hear you're no longer baselessly accusing our top Spectres," remarked the salarian councilor. "Very well, let's hear it."

The Council and the surrounding witnesses in the Council chambers were shocked to hear the voice of Saren Arterius say, "Eden Prime was a major victory. The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit."

A second voice caused the asari councilor to visibly pale and clench her fists, "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers."

"You wanted proof, there it is," Udina crowed.

"This evidence is irrefutable, Ambassador. Saren will be stripped of his Spectre status and all efforts will be made to bring him in to answer for his crimes." Though his military bearing did not allow him to betray it, the turian councilor's voice was filled with anger at Saren's betrayal.

The asari councilor regained her composure and spoke, "I recognize the second voice. Matriarch Benezia."

"Who is she?" asked Shepard.

"Matriarchs are highly influential asari who have lived at least seven hundred years and are revered for their wisdom and skill. Benezia had the ear of many members of our government. Last I heard, she had determined to go on a diplomatic mission. It seems," she growled, "she had other plans."

"What about these Reapers or this Conduit?" asked the turian councilor. "Do we have any intel on them?"

"Only what the geth believe," said Anderson. "The data Tali retrieved indicates the Reapers are an ancient race of synthetics that destroyed the Protheans fifty thousand years ago."

"The geth see the Reapers as gods and Saren as their prophet, for lack of better terms," continued Shepard.

"We believe this Conduit is the key to bringing the Reapers back. Saren's searching for it; that's why he attacked Eden Prime," Anderson finished.

"Do we even know what this Conduit is?" asked the salarian councilor.

"Saren thinks it can bring back the Reapers," replied Shepard. "That's bad enough."

"Listen to what you're saying!" scolded the turian councilor. "Saren wants to bring back the machines that wiped out all life in the galaxy? Impossible! It has to be! Where did the Reapers go? Why did they disappear? Why have we found no trace of their existence?" he scoffed.

"I tried to warn you about Saren and you refused to listen," Shepard replied angrily, the vision from the beacon returning to the forefront of his memory. "Don't make the same mistake again."

"This is different," reasoned the asari councilor. "We all agree that Saren is working with the geth to find the Conduit, but we don't really know why."

"Why is beside the point, Councilor," Ahsoka interjected. "Whether the Conduit is a way to bring back ancient machines or simply a weapon, Saren and the geth will continue to search for it. He will invade other worlds. He must be found and stopped before that happens, else another colony may not be as lucky as Eden Prime." This gave the Council pause.

Ambassador Udina seized the opportunity to speak up. "Exactly! Saren nearly destroyed Eden Prime; what if his next target is a turian, asari, or salarian colony? You know he's hiding somewhere in the Traverse! Send your fleet in!" he demanded.

"A fleet cannot track down one man," refused the salarian councilor.

Udina did not back down, though. "A fleet could secure the entire region and prevent any more colonies from coming under attack!"

"Or it could trigger a war with the Terminus systems," reasoned the turian councilor. "We will not risk a galactic confrontation over a few dozen human colonies," he said, waving a dismissive hand.

Fire bloomed in Shepard's eyes, and he opened his mouth to speak when Anderson laid a calming hand on his shoulder. "There is another option, Councilors," he said pointedly.

The asari councilor nodded, "A good option. One that does not require fleets or armies."

Udina continued, "Shepard proved himself on Eden Prime and exposed Saren's treachery. He deserves this opportunity."

The Council silently conversed. The asari councilor looked at her compatriots and nodded encouragingly. The salarian councilor followed her lead. The turian councilor looked at the others and reluctantly nodded as well. The asari councilor then spoke for the Council, "Commander Alan Shepard, step forward. It is the decision of the Council that you be given all the powers and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel."

At these words, every being in the Council chambers turned towards the proceedings. Humans, asari, turians, salarians, elcor, volus, and even a quarian paid rapt attention as history was made. The salarian councilor continued undeterred, "Spectres are not trained, but chosen. Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle, those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file."

"Spectres are an ideal, a symbol," continued the asari councilor. "They are the embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council, instruments of our will."

"Spectres bear a great burden. They are protectors of galactic peace, both our first and last line of defense," charged the turian councilor. "The safety of the galaxy is theirs to uphold."

"You are the first human Spectre, Commander," finished the asari councilor. "This is a great accomplishment for you and your entire species."

Shepard bowed. "I'm honored."

* * *

Ahsoka approached the Normandy dock carrying a bag. Astromechs were making final maintenance adjustments to the hull as she approached. By the door of the ship, Captain Anderson was talking with Commander Shepard. Before she got close enough to hear, Shepard saluted Anderson. Anderson returned it, then walked away from the ship, towards her.

"Captain," she began but was cut off.

"Actually, they've decided to make me an Admiral now," he said with a grimace.

"Congratulations, sir, but why are you leaving your ship?" she asked.

"I'm afraid that the top brass has decided that I'm now more useful captaining a desk rather than a ship. The _Normandy_ belongs to Commander Shepard now. Better hurry if you want to join up."

She shook his hand. "Goodbye, Admiral. It was an honor to work with you, brief as it was."

"The pleasure was all mine, Master Tano. Good luck, and don't be afraid to cut loose out there."

Ahsoka spoke with Shepard, who quickly agreed to let her join the crew. At her request, she was assigned to Chief Engineer Adams, who put her to work taking care of the astromechs in the lower level next to the armory. After doing what she could, she settled down to meditate as Commander Shepard opened the intercom and gave a brief speech as well as their destination, Therum. She settled to the floor in a lotus position and opened herself fully to the Force. As it had ever since they left the Emperor's dark shroud, the Force both enveloped and cleansed her. It nurtured her; she was a Daughter of the Force. It revived her, clearing the clouds of anxiety and giving her clarity of memory and focus. The identity of the mysterious attacker still puzzled her, but the Force was yielding no answers.

Even these anxieties eventually faded as Ahsoka sunk deeper into her meditation. They were headed to Artemis Tau cluster next to apprehend Matriarch Benezia's daughter. Perhaps the Force would see fit to provide Ahsoka with answers there.

 **I told you that updates would be few and far between. I am still very new to creative writing and would appreciate any constructive criticism you may have. I'm still looking for a beta as well, if anyone is interested.**


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